Bonnie Scotland (1935)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Just rewatched this Laurel & Hardy feature on DVD. It has Stan & Ollie going to Scotland to claim an inheritance for Stan but it's not what they think. I'll stop there and just say that while the boys have plenty of funny scenes, the sequences involving the juvenile leads of William Janney and June Lang are for the birds and rarely involve the comedy team, in fact, Ms. Lang has no scenes with them and never even met them! No wonder Ms. Lang and Janney have no final romantic clinch here. Enough about them and let's just also note the welcome support turns by Daphne Pollard and especially James Finlayson, always a welcome sight in these L & H pictures. So on that note, Bonnie Scotland is still a worthy movie for fans of the boys. P.S. I'd also recommend the commentary track provided by Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann that accompanies this DVD especially when they talk about the guy who provided the special effects here, Roy Seawright.

I don't understand why this has a 6.7 overall rating, yes, being a fan, I'm biased, but I'm first to admit that like so many L & H fans, where the lads are good, they're good, as they are here and when they're bad, they're bad. (As their 1940's departure from Hal Roach showed). The boys have escaped from prison in the USA and stow away on a boat to Scotland, as Stan's Scottish Grandfather has died and left him 'something' in the will. Unfortunately, it turns out to be just a set of bagpipes and some snuff! The bulk of the fortune goes to the relative's granddaughter, Lorna McLaurel of whom there's a tentative link with in the film other than blood (As Stan's association was of course a more delinquent relative). A lot more to this, but we'll get to the boys, whom always have some sub-plot in the films. Stranded now in Scotland and broke, they inadvertedly enter the army (as they would) and get posted to India. (Along with Lorna's love interest, lawyer's clerk, Alan - who thinks he's been shunned by Lorna but finds out he hasn't - enough of them!). Naturally the boys are inept, Stan missing step when marching, causing the whole regiment to be 'out-of-pace'. Good support from Jimmy Finlayson, (who I may add, apart from maybe lesser-known Scottish actors, is the only major Scot genuinely in it). Being India, there's going to be natives attacking the fort (original) and the boys inadvertedly thwarting them perhaps in some ways like Beau Hunks (Or Beau Chumps, depending which part of the English-speaking world you're in). All in all, rompy, fun, good gags (When Stan sees the McLaurel family Butler: 'Nice fella, he sure can 'buttle'!')And, of course, the 'absurd' visual gags that only they can do and have you in stitches with - Ollie taking the snuff, sneezing, falling in a river and having sneezed all the river dry! Don't miss this one!

Stan and Ollie travel all the way to Bonnie Scotland to collect on an inheritance left by Stan MacLaurel's late grandfather. Both he and his cousin June Lang are provided, but she's not of age and she's under the firm guardianship of Colonel Vernon Steele and his scheming Mrs., Anne Grey. William Janney, the clerk in lawyer David Torrence's office is in love with June Lang, but she's spirited off to India during the British Raj. Never mind, Stan and Ollie and poor young Janney also find their way there as the scene of the plot shifts from Bonnie Scotland to India with the Highlanders.It's all a pretty thin plot, but good enough to hang some of Stan and Ollie's best screen moments on. One of my all time favorites is when Ollie has an encounter with a snuff box which was half of Laurel's inheritance the other half being a set of bagpipes. Another is when Stan and Ollie try to use the bedsprings in their hotel to grill some fish and nearly burn poor Mary Gordon's establishment down.After the boys go into the Indian Army they become the bane of the existence of their old nemesis, Sergeant James Finlayson. In the end Janney, Finlayson, and the boys provide a hilarious ending to a tribal rebellion. Films like Lives of a Bengal Lancer and Charge of the Light Brigade about the British Raj take one good beating from producer Hal Roach and his intrepid and incomparable stars. For fans of Stan and Ollie the world over.

Laurel & Hardy leave for Scotland so that Mr. Stanley MacLaurel can receive his inheritance, what he hopes is money; what he gets is bagpipes and a snuff box. On shrinking Ollie's pants, Stan covers up at the boarding house that Ollie is sick; yet this plan doesn't work (hilarious cooking of the fish) and the boys are kicked out, and wind up joining the Scottish Army in search of pants for Ollie! This movie also has a subplot, whcih does not pertain to the boys at all, it is romantic, and doesn't hog up the spotlight too much. The romantic plot: A clerk is in love with Miss MacLaurel, Stan's cousin or something, and she leaves as a ward for Colonel Gregor McGregor to India; his sister hiding away the clerk (Alan's) letters. Finally, in a desperation of love, Alan joins with Stan & Ollie as they, in the Scottish Army, go to India as well.Once there, we see some hilarious scenes-from Stan marching out of place, to the invisible accordion, and who could ever forget that funny dance routine and Stan's calling of the Sergeant (Finlayson), "Leatherpuss." The romantic subplot, however, is never resolved, and in the end, Stan & Ollie throw bee hives at enemy forces disguised as officer in the Scottish Army. Everyone runs from the bees, including all of the good guys, and the film ends here. True, Stan & Ollie are finished, but the unfinished romantic subplot leaves you wondering: What Happened?All in all, this is an excellent Laurel & Hardy film, one every fan should see. It's not one of their funniest or all-time greatest, but it is an all-round good film, much better than many of the current comedies..